we keep us safe… we keep us free.
Ode to Freedom House
From 2021-2023, Freedom House was our community organizing hub and shared space where Operation Liberation’s and many other local organizers’ work lived. Freedom House was the home we shared with KC’s most impacted Black community and an incubator for Kansas City’s rich history of resistance + Black Radical Tradition.
Birthed from Black queer feminism in practice, Freedom House was OL’s love letter to KC and served community as:
- a mutual aid + resource hub
- an unapologetic Black space
- a home for ALL Black people to come as they are, and leave transformed in the spirit of care, community + Black radical thought
- a collaborative space for Black creatives
- the safe house, the meeting headquarters, a place for unapologetic Black joy
While we are sad we had to close its doors, Freedom House lives on in our hearts and minds when we think of all the lives touched + community built. Our most rewarding memories are witnessing the communal transformation + relationships built as our surrounding neighbors began engaging in the radical act of collective care – helping stock our outdoor community pantry, refrigerator, library + free store, Liberation Station, in the basement. These memories also serve as a reminder of why OL’s work is so important!
We love and miss you Freedom House, and we can’t wait to see what the next iteration we build looks like!
